More than anything else, the new NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI chipset is designed for next‐generation processor technologies, and supports 3‐way SLI, Quad SLI, DDR3 with EPP 2, PCI Express 2.0, 1600 FSB CPUs, and the meticulous hardware control via the Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA).

The ASUS Striker II NSE nForce 790i SLI motherboard provides true triple PCIe 2.0/16x lanes with support for 3‐Way SLI and Quad SLI. It includes 60 PCI Express lanes and 10 links, six SATA ports, one eSATA port, 10 USB, and two Gigabit Ethernet NVIDIA MAC, ATA‐133 interface, two PCI slots, and HD audio. Impressive right?

Motherboards are at the heart of every computer, and their importance is central to stable system operation. No matter if you are a low-demand office worker who plugs away on letters or spreadsheets or if you are a high-performance hardware enthusiast who demands extreme frame rates from your video games, one component alone will determine your ability: the motherboard. Because everything rides on the system mainboard, it must be based on a solid and dependable foundation. Gigabyte isn't a new name to the industry, and for years now they have offered some of the most reliable and stable motherboard sold. In fact, over the past year there really only seemed to be two realistic options for motherboard manufacturers when you shopped for new hardware; and Gigabyte was one of them. In this article Benchmark Reviews challenges our reigning champion against the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 Ultra Durable 2 DES motherboard.

Market forecasts predict DDR3 memory poised to replace its predecessor DDR2 as the main volume product for 2008. Already aware of this, memory chip manufacturers like Micron, Samsung, Hynix, and Qimonda have begun tooling up for mass production. As a result we should finally start to see the dizzying prices of DDR3 come down - being affordable will no doubt help to spur adoption in the market. With price drops looming, many will be looking for quality motherboards suitable for high-speed DDR3. With this in mind Benchmark Reviews thought it would be of interest to examine one of the more mature DDR3 based motherboard offerings on the market today; the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe Wi-Fi-AP Motherboard based on the Intel P35 chipset.